Browsed byCategory: Small Business

We often hear people say we must buy local, or support local business. Is this just a tactic these people use to get us to buy from them instead of their competition?

Sometimes yes, but let’s look at the underlying benefits.

Buying local really means supporting a local small business, and most often, a family-run business. Supporting these businesses means that the profits stays here, and gets spent here as well.

Non-local business are typically big chains with a branch in the area but their head office in a big city somewhere. Their profits are typically sent back to head office, where it is used or pocketed by the shareholders.

In our area new small businesses are one of the biggest single threats to survival of other small businesses. We are our own worst enemy.

I have seen the same thing repeat itself over and over again. It works as follows: Someone uses his hard earned talent and experience to set up a small business offering a highly skilled service. Once the idea has proved itself as a successful venture others sit up and take note. Then the copycats pop up and the industry is ruined for those that offer real craftsmanship.

George is open for business. Open as long as it is not a public holiday, the day between the public holiday and the weekend, an actual weekend, too early, too late, or any other time the business owner feels inconveniences him or her.

One place where service to customers still has a significant way to go is our local municipality. Their attitude of entitlement and power does not help to breed trust or engender goodwill. We are all quick to tell horror stories of long queues and useless officials. Unfortunately they are not alone; our town is full of local businesses that operate in the same way, some even complaining just as loudly about the poor service they get from the municipality.

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About Me

Welcome to my corner of the world where I get a chance to speak my mind on various topics, mostly tech related.

I am the co-founder of Cloud Connect, a Garden Route based wireless ISP, and founder of Datatill, an ISP billing and management platform

My daytime job is being CIO of Hero Telecoms. This involves coding, application architecture design, and lots of other interesting stuff like R&D.
I am involved in various business and technology initiatives within the region, started the Garden Route ICT Incubator and am past President of the GeorgeChamber of Business and George Tourism Association.